The Central Government is to fix the reimbursement limit of the fees paid towards product registration overseas by Indian drug companies Rs 25 lakh. The decision was taken after it was felt that Rs 10 lakhs, as proposed earlier, was too less. However, the maximum number of registrations for which a company can claim the reimbursement remains as five.

A notification in this effect is expected within two weeks, it is learnt.

It is known that Indian companies are registering, on an average, 2000 products in a year. With the registration fees in foreign countries varying from US $ 5,000 to US $ 13,000 per product, these companies are currently spending a huge sum just for getting their products registered in the foreign markets. The plans of the government to reimburse upto 25 lakh of registration fee should come as a major relief to the export oriented pharmaceutical companies.

It is known that CIS countries charge US $ 5,500 for registering a single product in their region. The product registration fee in EU countries also comes to US $ 3,000 per registration. In the case of Latin American Countries, the rate varies from country to country and also product to product. Experts point out that the rates could be anything between US $ 3,000 to US $ 18,000. The United States charges US $ 5,500 for registration of a single product. The registration fee charged by African countries is US $ 5,000.

With more Indian drug companies turning towards exports, and some of the leading ones enjoying more export business than domestic sales; the incentive is to bring in positive results. Drug exports from the country touched Rs 10,000 crore during the current year.

The incentive was first announced in the Exim Policy statement in 2002.